Detecting User Logon

[Michael Bird]

I have an app that starts when the system starts up, so it is already
running when the user logs in. The app sits in the system tray with a
NotifyIcon.

If I run launch the app manually once I'm logged in, everything is fine.

If the app starts automatically at system startup, when I log in, it doesn't
put its notify icon into the system tray. I assume there is some windows
message I should be looking for to re-show my notify icon, but I am not sure
what it would be.

Does anyone know what I need to do here?

Thanks.

 

[Gabriele G. Ponti]

Michael,

How do you start your application? Do you have a shortcut in the Startup
folder, via a registry entry, or is your application a service?

Gabriele

 

[Michael Bird]

I added it as a scheduled task that runs when the system starts.

 

[Gabriele G. Ponti]

Make sure that the user used to execute the task has the proper permissions.

I was wondering, why you are using a task to start your application at
logon?

 

[Michael Bird]

It started as a regular scheduled app and then turned into a "run it 24/7"
app late in the development. Turning it into a service at this point would
take moretime than we probably have, especially since it has a small
windowed UI and we've never done that before with a task.

 

[Gabriele G. Ponti]

Michael,

If in fact your application is running (check with the Task Manager), but
the tray icon doesn't show, then you can try handling the "TaskbarCreated"
message.

This sample should get you started:

using System;
using System.Drawing;
using System.Collections;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Windows.Forms;
using System.Data;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;

namespace RegisterWindowMessageTest
{
public class Form1 : System.Windows.Forms.Form
{
private System.ComponentModel.IContainer components;
private System.Windows.Forms.NotifyIcon notifyIcon1;
private int msg;

[DllImport("USER32.DLL")]
private static extern int RegisterWindowMessage(String lpString);

public Form1()
{
InitializeComponent();

msg = RegisterWindowMessage("TaskbarCreated");
}

protected override void Dispose( bool disposing )
{
if( disposing )
{
if (components != null)
{
components.Dispose();
}
}
base.Dispose( disposing );
}

#region Windows Form Designer generated code
private void InitializeComponent()
{
this.components = new System.ComponentModel.Container();
System.Resources.ResourceManager resources = new
System.Resources.ResourceManager(typeof(Form1));
this.notifyIcon1 = new System.Windows.Forms.NotifyIcon(this.components);
this.notifyIcon1.Icon =
((System.Drawing.Icon)(resources.GetObject("notifyIcon1.Icon")));
this.notifyIcon1.Text = "notifyIcon1";
this.AutoScaleBaseSize = new System.Drawing.Size(5, 13);
this.ClientSize = new System.Drawing.Size(292, 273);
this.Name = "Form1";
this.Text = "Form1";

}
#endregion

[STAThread]
static void Main()
{
Application.Run(new Form1());
}

protected override void WndProc(ref Message m)
{
if(m.Msg == msg)
{
notifyIcon1.Visible = true;
}
else
{
base.WndProc(ref m);
}
}
}
}

Regards,

Gabriele